NZXT S340 Elite Review

The original NZXT S340 earned itself plenty of praise on these pages last year, so news of a refreshed, slightly more premium edition was received warmly. The S340 Elite comes in at £90, which is £25 more than the S340 can be had for. For a relatively compact mid-tower, this is also quite a lot, so hopefully the chassis is elite in more than just name.

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First impressions, thankfully, are excellent. Aesthetics are subjective of course, but the S340 Elite looks clean and tidy without being boring. The matt finish gives the chassis an understated elegance, especially when compared to the harsh glossiness of our original S340 sample. This is only bolstered by the thick, tempered glass side panel. The panels are also resistant to marks and fingerprints, and the case is very strong and sturdy – overall, the materials and build quality have been given a significant upgrade.

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The solid front panel pulls off to reveal a dust filter guarding the pair of 140mm/120mm fan mounts. That said, the S340 Elite doesn't have any intake fans fitted by default, instead relying on a dual 120mm exhaust fan system – one in the roof, one in the rear – which should keep the CPU nice and cool. That said, a 140mm fan in the roof mount would have been preferable since the mount can accommodate one.

Also protected by a dust filter is the PSU, this time with a simple-to-use slide-out one on the bottom. The big, rubberised case feet give the chassis lots of clearance and plenty of grip too.

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The front I/O panel is mounted to the roof, and this should give you easy access with the case on the floor or even on a desk since it isn't too tall. The power button is a touch wobbly but has a nice action at least, although there's no reset button on this case. What you do get, however, besides a solid selection of USB ports, is a HDMI connection. This will need routing and connecting to your graphics card's HDMI output, either out through a tiny gap between the case and the steel side panel at the back of the case or to an internal connection as seen on EVGA's GTX 980 Ti VR Edition. Once connected, it allows you to connect a VR headset to the front panel – we think this is a really neat idea.

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Looking to boost its credentials as a 'VR-optimised' chassis further, the S340 Elite also comes with an external magnetic puck, designed to stick to the outside of the chassis to give you somewhere to hang your VR headset – naturally you can also hang a pair of headphones on it instead if you want. It's rubberised and split into two parts which can be stuck together or separated to give you more length to play with when wrapping cables around it.

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Hanging a HTC Vive headset on it and attempting to wrap the cables around the puck was cumbersome, with the puck buckling under the weight – it supports the weight of the headset just fine, but the additional force of pulling down when wrapping the cables is what does it. Wrapping some thin headphone cables into the puck is fine, however, and we think that it's another cool addition.